U.S. stock futures move up; more data aheadBy Barbara Kollmeyer,...

U.S. stock futures move up; more data ahead

By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

MADRID (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-market futures pointed to gains on Friday, with consumer spending and new-home sales among data on tap, while volumes are expected to thin out ahead of the long Christmas weekend.

U.S. stock markets will be closed on Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJ2H +0.31% were recently up 49 points, or 0.4%, to 12,152.

Futures for the S&P 500 index SP2H +0.57% rose 6.1 points, or 0.5%, to 1,255.20. Nasdaq 100 futures ND2H +0.41% gained 8.5 points, or 0.4%, to 2,269.75.
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Stocks headed into the last day of trading before Christmas in good cheer, notching a third straight advance on a batch of better-than-expected economic readings. Brendan Intindola has details on The News Hub. Photo: AP

Investors are awaiting more economic data for Friday. Personal-income and consumer- spending, along with durable- goods-orders data, all for November, will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. At 10 a.m. Eastern, new-home sales for November are scheduled for release.

“Reports today should reveal that U.S. personal spending, durable-goods orders and sales of new homes all rose in November, after yesterday’s data showed a drop in jobless claims,” said Stephen Pope, managing partner at Spotlight Ideas, in emailed comments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.51% on Thursday added 61.91 points, or 0.5%, to 12,169.65, its third session of gains, after weekly jobless claims dropped to a multi-year low and consumer sentiment rose for December.
Lingering effects

That U.S. economic news had some lingering positive effects for European stock markets on Friday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index XX:SXXP +0.96% was last up 0.7% to 241.47 with oil and drug stocks taking the lead.

Shares of BP PLC BP +0.93% UK:BP +2.08% rose more than 2% on higher oil prices.

“Much of this is based on a degree of optimism that U.S. data points are starting to increasingly show that the USA is establishing traction and so should avoid a double-dip recession,” said Pope.

Among commodities, light, sweet crude oil for February delivery CL2G +0.34% rose 26 cents to $99.79 a barrel.

Gold futures for February delivery GC2G 0.00% fell $1.90 to $1,608.80 an ounce.

The dollar index DXY -0.15% was recently at 79.836, down from 79.929 in late North American trade on Thursday.

Barbara Kollmeyer is an editor for MarketWatch in Madrid.